Chapter 64 - Bluffing Works Great, Until It Doesn’t
Benton’s scan of the Jade Chameleon Sect member told him a lot about the man. The first important fact was that he used illusion aspected qi.
According to what Su had learned in one of his lessons at the Flowing Tiger Sect, around three quarters of people born had qi aspects corresponding to one of the five primary elements—earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. There were additionally many, many secondary elements, including lightning, ice, nature, poison, shadow, and the list goes on. Obviously, then, less than twenty-five percent of cultivators used a secondary qi aspect, and since there were possibly hundreds of such aspects, that meant that the incidence of each was relatively small, though some were definitely rarer or more common than others.
Thus, even though the Poison Claw Sect favored poison users, well less than half of their members utilized that unique aspect. The same was true for the Jade Chameleon Sect.
Making the assumption that one of their members used illusion was less than an odds on bet. Benton, however, knew the man approaching did, which meant he knew to be aware of trickery.
The fact that the man was thirty-seven years old and only at the peak of Foundation Establishment told Benton a lot as well. C+ roots weren’t bad at all, but though spirit root rank was referred to as talent, having quality roots did not guarantee success. Anyone could bottleneck at any time. Deviations, heart demons, pill toxicity build up, lack of diligence, quality of cultivation methods, and any one of probably hundreds of factors could leave a promising cultivator to languish.
Given the quality of those roots, the odds greatly favored the man’s cultivation getting stalled in the Foundation Establishment realm instead of in Qi Gathering. He probably had plenty of years to master techniques as he struggled to overcome his bottleneck.
Of course, that conclusion was mostly speculation. He could have started cultivating at twenty-five years old and actually be right on track. Or he could be lazy or stupid or whatever and simply not cultivated much or learned anything.
Benton wouldn’t bet on any of the latter scenarios being true, though. In all probability, the man stalking toward the camp was an illusionist who had years to master many combat tricks.
If things escalated to a fight, Benton wouldn’t be able to trust what he saw, heard, smelled, touched, or even tasted. His best bet was to end things as soon as they started.
Of course, winning a fight with a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator at all was not a foregone conclusion. Benton’s ten available Sect Points would only advance him to the fifth minor realm, and he’d not even have a chance to adjust to his surge in strength and qi before the fight began.
A single quick and decisive strike would be his best bet.
No. Actually, his best bet was his go to move—bluffing.